Sally Field Details 1964 Abortion Ahead of 2024 Presidential Election

• Sally Field recalled the story of her own “traumatic” illegal abortion 60 years ago, before the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that affirmed the right to abortion in the United States, in a detailed Instagram video
• Field said she “had a family doctor who was a friend of the family, and he drove me and his wife and my mother, in their brand-new Cadillac, to Tijuana” for her to undergo the procedure
• Calling the experience “beyond hideous and life-altering,” the Forrest Gump star said that she “had no anesthetic” during the procedure and that the technician working with her “was actually molesting me”

Sally Field is sharing her abortion experience as the 2024 presidential election draws closer.

The two-time Oscar winner shared the story of her own “traumatic” illegal abortion 60 years ago, before the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that affirmed the right to abortion in the United States. (The decision was overturned in 2022, nearly 50 years after it went into effect.)

Field, 77, recalled in a video posted to her Instagram grid on Sunday, Oct. 6, being 17 years old when she found out she was pregnant. She begins the video by saying, “I still feel very shamed about it because I was raised in the ’50s, and it’s ingrained in me.”

“I had no choices in my life, I didn’t have a lot of family support or finances. I graduated high school but no one ever said, ‘How about college?’ Nothing. I didn’t know what I was gonna be,” said the actress. “And then I found out I was pregnant.”

At the time, Field “had a family doctor who was a friend of the family, and he drove me and his wife and my mother, in their brand-new Cadillac, to Tijuana.”

“And we parked on a really scroungy-looking street, it was scary and he parked about three blocks away and said, ‘See that building down there?’ And he gave me an envelope with cash and I was to walk into that building and give them the cash and then come right back to him,” she continued.

Calling the experience “beyond hideous and life-altering,” the Forrest Gump star said that she “had no anesthetic” during the procedure. However, “There was a technician giving me a few puffs of ether but he would then take it away, so it just made my arms and legs feel numb weird, but I felt everything — how much pain I was in,” she added.

“Then the situation turned darker, Field said. ‘I realized that the technician was actually molesting me, so I had to figure out, how can I make my arms move to push him away? So it was just this absolute pit of shame. And then, when it was finished, they said, ‘Go go go go go!’, like the building was on fire. And they didn’t want me there, you know, it was illegal!”

Field went on to praise her doctor’s “generosity” and “bravery,” as “he would’ve lost his license if anyone had found out” what he did for her.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human-interest stories.

“And more probably, because I was too naive to know anything,” she said. “I’d never been out of the state, I’d never been on an airplane.”

“And fate, you know, something glorious outside of ourselves, whatever you believe, reached in,” Field recalled. “And a few months after that, I began auditions. I didn’t have an agent; I wasn’t really an actor. I’d been doing it in high school constantly. And I began auditioning. And by the end of that year, I was Gidget. I was the quintessential, all-American girl next door.”

Referencing details she gave in her 2018 memoir In Pieces, Field said in her video, “The thing that I wrote about in the book, in reality, I was the quintessential, all-American girl next door, because so many young women, my generation of women, were going through this.”

“And these are the things that women are going through now — when they’re trying to get to another state, they don’t have the money, they don’t have the means, they don’t know where they’re going,” she added. “And it’s beyond, how you can go back to that and do that to our little girls and our young women, and not have respect and regard for their health and their own decisions about whether they feel they’re able to give birth to a child at that time.”

“We can’t go back. We have to all stand up and fight. And that was that lovely story,” she concluded.

The Steel Magnolias actress presented her video alongside a lengthy caption, which she began by admitting she has “been so hesitant … to tell my horrific story.”

“A time when contraception was not readily available and only if you were married,” Field wrote. “But I feel that so many women of my generation went through similar, traumatic events and I feel stronger when I think of them. I believe, like me, they must want to fight for their grandchildren and all the young women of this country.”

Field went on to say that the issue is “one of the reasons why so many of us are supporting Kamala Harris and Tim Walz” in the upcoming election.

“Everyone, please, pay attention to this election, up and down the ballot, in every state — especially those with ballot initiatives that could protect reproductive freedom. PLEASE. WE CAN’T GO BACK!!” she concluded, telling her followers she would “be honored” to hear others’ stories, if they are willing.

Among the bevy of comments on her post was one from Busy Philipps, who previously shared her own story of having an abortion as a teenager in her 2018 memoir This Will Only Hurt a Little.

“I just love you and the beautiful family you have. thank you ❤️,” wrote Philipps, 45.

“Thank you. You are a courageous beacon of light and hope for all of us. 💕,” Elizabeth Perkins said, while Marcia Cross also wrote, “Thank you.”

If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual abuse, text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.